ORLANDO, FL—U.S. Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announces that U.S. District Judge Anne C. Conway today sentenced John E. Huth (30, Orlando) to 11 years and three months in federal prison for distributing child pornography. The court also ordered Huth to forfeit the computers he used to distribute and store the child pornography. As part of Huth’s sentence, the court also ordered him to serve a life term of supervised release after he completes his prison sentence. Huth plead guilty on June 1, 2011.

According to court documents, Huth distributed child pornography using a file-sharing program over the Internet. On October 22, 2010, a law enforcement officer downloaded 154 pictures and one video of child pornography from Huth. Subsequently, agents executed a search warrant at Huth’s home and found over 9,000 pictures and 160 videos containing child pornography. Many of the images depicted prepubescent and young adolescent children. Huth admitted that he had been trading child pornography for several years. Previously, law enforcement officers had identified the children exploited and abused in 1,786 of the pictures and 11 of the videos found on Huth’s computers.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov and click on the tab “other resources.”

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Karen L. Gable.